Deer

[brian]

Are deer known to eat citrus leaves/fruit?  Deer cause severe damage to my non-citrus fruit trees every year but so far have never touched the citrus.  However, now that I have fruit ripening I'm worried they will realize what they are missing out on and clean the whole crop.  It's a little to early for me to put the plants in my winter greenhouse.  I have to wait for the oak leaves to fall so it isn't shaded out.

I know hungry deer will eat *anything* but there's a ton of other foliage around until late fall.

[luak]

Yes you are right they eat anything but not the older citrus leaves so they will prune your tree's for free. But the good part they might fertilize while eating. Happens to me till i fence my tree's. That is another $ 85.00 for a 100' welded wire fence from Lowe's.

[Tropheus76]

Deer are disastrous to my citrus trees. They eat the fruit, the leaves and rub their antlers taking the bark off and destroying branches. Paintball or birdshot is the best I have come up with without killing them.

[brian]

Maybe I'm just lucky that they haven't found a taste for them yet.  They knock the fruit off sometimes when they walk over them to eat my garden, but haven't seen any browsing.  I would fence the yard if I lived in a different area but I'm right in the middle of a residential neighborhood, it would be really weird looking to put a 9ft fence around the yard.  Paintball gun is a good idea.

[mrtexas]

How about a crossbow?

[Tropheus76]

If you are trying to kill them a crossbow or 7.62x54r will work fine. My wife wont let me use lethal force I love venison jerky. For the record 12ga riot control rounds do not work unless you get very close to them. 40 feet is too far to be effective and my deer are too skittish to let me get that close. Birdshot in the rump should work fine for a bee sting. I have been hit at 100 feet and it stung but didn't break the skin, I am sure a deer's pelt will take the hit at closer range.

[brian]

While I have both a crossbow and a Mosin I'm too close to the neighbors, there are little kids everywhere.  Couldn't risk it.

 I need to move to a more rural area...

[RyanL]

I need to move to a more rural area...

No you don't! They are insane here. I am in a somewhat rural area and you cant shoot them out of season. by in-season time they are gone. A strong fence is the only way.

[Tropheus76]

What the LEOs don't know wont hurt them or you, they are pests not game animals and there is no shortage of them. I am in a rural area with my nearest neighbors a hundred yards away on either side with a thickly wooded lot separating the two. Only one has ever noticed me shooting my shotgun (with riot control rounds) at 1230am and only then because that neighbor was in their hot tub.